


It's the Thought that Counts

by WinglessCrows



Series: Through the Eyes of a Cook [37]
Category: One Piece
Genre: Bad Cooking, Cross-Posted on FanFiction.Net, Sickfic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-10
Updated: 2018-07-10
Packaged: 2019-05-27 07:57:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,430
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15020144
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WinglessCrows/pseuds/WinglessCrows
Summary: While Sanji is sick, some of the crewmembers try to bake for him... It's not exactly a successful attempt





	It's the Thought that Counts

**Author's Note:**

> Follow up of Love Keeps the Cold at Bay

Sanji ran to the kitchen. His legs were a bit weak and his head slightly fuzzy, but what choice did he have? The door wasn't even closed and smoke was rising from within. Someone was going to die. Sanji covered his mouth with his hand, yet he still coughed in the thick and dirty air. The culprits were quickly found as none of them had thought of leaving the kitchen.

Where Sanji was pretty sure there had once been a dining table was now a big black burn and three people. Franky and Luffy, whom it really didn't surprise Sanji were there, and Chopper for reasons Sanji had yet to figure out. All three of them were suffering from the after effects of the explosion. They were coughing, but only lightly which meant that Sanji couldn't feel bad for them, their hair was spiked and their fronts were covered in black sod and... something else. Besides the smell of burnt wood, there was also the sickening stench of burnt caramel.

"Ah~ What a surprise," Luffy sang calmly and Sanji immediately went to kick him into the nearest wall.

He then kicked both Chopper and Franky lightly in the head with his heel. Unlike Luffy they weren't made of rubber, and Sanji was suspecting that Luffy was the main reason for the disaster anyway.

Sanji then went to asses the damage done to his kitchen. Luckily the explosion had happened in the dining area so nothing had been completely destroyed. However, pieces of wood had been flung around and had smashed a couple of things in the progress. One of the cupboards containing some of Sanji's favorite plates (the nice blue ones Nami had bought when she joined the crew) had been completely ruined, there was a huge dent in the oven lid and Sanji was sure to make Franky check up on the stove before he dared use it again. He didn't want a second explosion to occur. Other than that the kitchen was just really messy with black sod and whatever this weird cream was.

As a curious chef Sanji wiped some of the cream off of the kitchen counter and inspected it. It smelled burnt (as everything else did), but Sanji picked up the faint sweet scent as well. He then tasted it, just a bit and made sure to spit it out afterwards. Who knew what kind of diseases this could hold? At least now he knew what it was. Meringue. That also explained why it smelled like burnt caramel.

Sanji went back to where Franky and Chopper were sitting, and saw that Luffy was sitting by the wall he had been kicked into. Luffy looked guilty, yet at the same time like he didn't regret it... at least not fully. Franky seemed to be deep in thought, while Chopper actually looked apologetic.

"Sanji, I'm sorry," the little doctor pleaded with tears in his eyes. How could Sanji stay mad at that? He went to the reindeer and patted him in the head, making Chopper smile.

"So you forgive us?" Luffy grinned, but Sanji glared angrily at him, and he understood the message.

"I wonder what went wrong...?" Sanji heard Franky wonder behind him and he kicked him again.

"I hope you all had a really good reason for blowing up my kitchen," Sanji said angrily and glared at Franky because there was no doubt that he was the reason something had had the potential to explode in the first place.

"Sanji..." Chopper tugged at his leg and Sanji looked down to him, "We were just trying to do something nice."

"Yeah, yeah" Luffy agreed, "We tried to do something nice!"

"How is ruining my kitchen a nice thing?" Sanji was still furious, but the little reindeer holding his leg was calming his anger, if just slightly.

"Obviously we didn't intend to blow everything up, it just happened," Franky said calmly and Sanji wondered if he should have kicked him harder to get the point across.

"We wanted to bake you a cake," Chopper then said and Sanji looked at him surprised, and for a moment, just for a moment, he forgot that he was supposed to be angry.

"What?"

"Luffy wanted to do something for you since you always work so hard," Chopper continued, probably having realized that Sanji had forgiven him, and only him, "and then you got ill, and we thought it'd be the perfect time to do it."

"But then we added some candles to the cake and for some reason it exploded..." Franky finished and this time Sanji made sure to kick him a bit harder.

"Cakes don't explode, you shitty robot. You must have done something to it!"

"I'm not a robot, I'm a cyborg!" Franky shouted and stroke a pose. Sanji didn't even have it in him to kick him again, so he just sighed. But now he was curious. It wasn't like Franky to make something that would randomly explode. At least not when he knew he was in an environment where explosions were an no-no.

"So what did you put in this exploding cake?" Sanji asked, wonder completely overtaking his previous anger, "I mean, I presume that you didn't use any gunpowder or anything like that."

"Well..." Franky sang and looked away from Sanji who just dead panned.

"Are you fucking serious?"

"It's not like we put it in the cake," Luffy said defensively, but the one person Sanji didn't trust when it came to cooking explanations was Luffy.

"Oh yeah? Then how do you explain the mystery explosion?" Sanji said in the most Luffy way that he could.

"... It's a mystery," Luffy said and looked straight into his eyes. Sanji sighed again.

"Someone tell me why the hell you decided to put gunpowder in the cake."

"We wanted to make this mini firework sort of thing," Franky explained, Sanji feeling the mecha nerd setting in, "so we had the centre, which was the fireworks, and then we build the cake around it. And it shouldn't have connected to anything, but when we lit the candles around the cake it exploded..."

"What kind of cake was it again?" Sanji asked, starting suspect what had happened even if the others had no idea.

"Just a chocolate cake, why?" Franky answered, and Sanji went into the ruins of his kitchen. He didn't have to search long before he found the bottle he was looking for. A big bottle with a label holding his hand writing.

"Did you use this?" Sanji asked and shoved Franky the bottle.

"Yes! How did you know?"

Sanji could have smacked Franky's head with the bottle, but he'd waste whatever was left of it.

"This" Sanji said forcefully, "Is a home made sugar mixture which is has an extremely high alcohol percentage. And what are one of the main properties of alcohol?" Sanji didn't wait for an answer. "It's flammable."

Franky's mouth made an 'o' shape, as he looked more interested in the fact that he now knew the reason for the explosion than the fact that the kitchen was ruined.

"I'm expecting this mess to be gone before dinner," Sanji said sternly, but then caught Luffy trying to sneak out, "And since this was your idea captain, it's only fair if you help out."

"But-" Luffy started, but then Sanji coughed, apparently still not having recovered from the cold and he supposed that being in a room filled with smoke didn't exactly help his health along.

"Sanji!" Chopper exclaimed, as he had probably forgotten that he had never actually given Sanji permission to leave his bed. The little doctor then pushed Sanji outside where the air was unbelievable refreshing, but that left the two other troublemakers to deal with the mess that was the kitchen. Sanji was quickly ushered back to the men's quarters, where Usopp gave him an odd look, as Sanji was forced back into his bed. Chopper did some basic check-ups and while Sanji was definitely recovering, he should still rest before going back to his regular job as a strawhat chef.

"Thank you," Sanji said to Chopper as he was about to leave to get some cough medicine.

"Don't worry, it's my job after all," Chopper smiled, but Sanji just shook his head.

"For the cake," he clarified, "It was very sweet of you... even if you completely failed."

"Then next time we try, we'll succeed," Chopper said and left to get the medicine. Sanji looked up at the ceiling and silently prayed that they wouldn't actually try to cook again.


End file.
